Dozens of young customers hoping to go on working holidays say they were left stranded overseas by a company with an office in Vancouver, a joint investigation by CBC News and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation has found.
Many of the travellers, aged between 18 and 30, say they ended up with no job after buying a working holiday package from Global Work & Travel Co.
The international travel company sells working holiday and volunteer packages from its offices in Vancouver, London and Surfers Paradise, in Queensland, Australia.
Hayley Patterson, 22, of Toronto and Juliet Jackson, 22, of London met on arrival in Surfers Paradise earlier this year, expecting to start work right away.
They say that’s what the salespeople at Global Work & Travel suggested would happen if they booked the "get it all" package.
"They made it sound so easy, that you would pretty much walk off the plane into a job and it would all be great!" Jackson said.
But there was no job waiting for either of them upon arrival in Surfers Paradise. After a few days, the company told them one of its clients had four positions available and they had to get to Melbourne for a job interview, 1,700 kilometres away.
'I feel really ripped off'
Patterson and Jackson could not afford flights, so they bought tickets for a 23-hour bus ride to Melbourne. Patterson was shocked when the manager of Sea Salt, a sushi bar and fish-and-chips joint, delivered the bad news.
"He said he didn't know what Global Work & Travel was … He said he had already hired like a month ago."
A manager at Sea Salt, a restaurant in Melbourne, said it has never had any arrangement with Global Work & Travel. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Patterson was furious she had paid more than $1,500 Cdn on top of her plane ticket for a package she believed guaranteed a job, even though the contracts she and Jackson signed with Global Work & Travel only guarantee a "job opportunity."
"I feel really ripped off for it because the reason I paid for that most expensive package was the job thing," Jackson said.
Patterson said when she called Global Work & Travel to complain, an employee "said that we were lying and that we just didn't get there on time. And that that was our 'job opportunity' so they didn't have to pay for accommodation any more."
Under the contract, she said, the company agreed to pay her accommodation until the "job opportunity" occurred.
"I definitely after that knew we were scammed. Your heart kind of drops because you are like, 'Where am I going to sleep next week if I don't have the money, and I don't have a job?' " said Patterson, who said she had to make a humiliating call home to Canada to ask her parents for money.
No vacancies
Jackson said Global Work & Travel told her it was all her fault and claimed that because it took two days to get to Melbourne, the company would have already hired.
In an email, Global Work and Travel claimed Sea Salt was a "client." But the restaurant's manager said it has never had any arrangement with the company and did not have multiple vacancies at any point last year. The manager said the restaurant only post jobs on websites such as Gumtree, Australia’s version of Craigslist.
Patterson and Jackson meet in Vancouver and recall the trip that left them broke and in tears in Australia earlier this year.
Patterson said when she started looking for a job on her own, she noticed an outdated employment ad for the same restaurant.
"We found that sushi bar job on Gumtree, so I think they just look on there for jobs and send people there without telling the employers that they are sending some of their clients."
Jackson said she partly blames herself for falling for the sales pitch for her first trip outside of the United Kingdom.
"I do feel tricked by them," she said. "It's the slight differences in the way they describe things. 'You'll get a job. And you will have interviews before you even leave,' but actually it's a job 'opportunity.' And that's a really vague word."
Patterson said several other travellers she "met in the hostels felt the exact same way we did. I think we had about 12 other people there with us, and they had all not received jobs."
After two months of trying to get work, they both gave up and went home.
"There were times just in public, walking down the street crying," Jackson recalled on a recent visit to Canada to see Patterson.
Company denies allegations
They both complained, but in an email from the company, Patterson was told she would get nothing if she posted a "bad review" of her experience online. She didn't, and they both received a partial refund.
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